Drywall hanging innovations & progress

The amount of posts I've written lately is nowhere near reflective of how much work we've been doing.  This is because we're actually in a phase where we've been doing so much work that there's no time left to write, and because the third coat of mud doesn't look a whole heck of a lot different that the first coat in photographs. Suffice it to say, if you haven't been here in awhile, it looks a LOT different.

After all the excitement of tearing the living room ceiling down, we have been laboriously putting it back up.  (Insert grunting and moaning noises here)  Fortunately, an overly long and unsolicited conversation with an employee at the Windham Homey D about drywall hanging (we were there for electrical supplies) yielded the spark of an idea as to how to make the ceiling-hanging process much easier. I introduce to you the latest in drywall-hanging innovations:  

That's right - a chunk of scrap 2X4 and a couple of 3+" drywall screws.  When you're hanging a piece that butts up against a wall, you just screw this device directly to the wall, leaving enough of a gap between the ceiling strapping and the top edge of the 2x4 to slide in the edge of the drywall.  Then you climb the ladder with the drywall, slide it in, and let your Incredible Hulk-sized husband climb up his ladder with the other end and start screwing.  (That's what she said) It is so much easier than using the "deadman" braces that seem to work for everyone else - we didn't do so well with those. And you're going to tape and mud over where those holes are anyway.  If you were doing this with new construction or a completely gutted room, you'd screw them right to the wall studs.  In our case, we wanted to keep the plaster walls and just do the ceilings.  The depth of the plaster was great enough so that when we removed it and the lath, we had enough space to actually slide the drywall sheet on top of it, greatly minimizing gaps.

But what happens when you're hanging a piece that doesn't butt up against a wall, you ask?  Simple.

Screw your fancy 2x4 device through the previously hung sheet (one which does butt up against the wall) and make sure the screws go into the strapping beneath it.  Don't screw it too tight; you want enough wiggle room to slide the next piece on top of it.  

I cannot tell you how much easier this was than the brute-strength method we employed in the entryway, and how much less on the verge of tears I was throughout the process, even though the living room is much larger than the entryway.

While I am on the topic of drywall innovations, I will mention two more unexpected yet incredibly useful tools: the rubber spatula and the vegetable peeler.  The rubber spatula is great for scraping down your tools and the sides of your bucket of mud so little goobers don't stick there, harden, and then carve streaks in the mud as you apply it.  The vegetable peeler is perfect for when, say, you've got a 48-inch-wide sheet of drywall and a 47 1/2-inch space to put it in.  There's no way you're going to be able to score and break half an inch off, or even saw it off, without it crumbling it and making a nasty-looking edge (not to mention a mess).  The vegetable peeler is perfect for tweaking just a little bit off.  I'm not even ashamed to admit that I got this idea from Martha Stewart; granted, she was was shaving down her candles to squeeze them into her candlesticks, but the same principle applies.  I've already discussed how if you've frosted any (good-looking) cakes in your life, you can handle mudding.  The sanding, however, seems to be a mess no matter how you slice it.  That's up next in the living room. (Insert grunting and moaning noises here.)